Fasken Oil breaks ground on new corporate headquarters

Published 2:30 pm, Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Architectual drawing of the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

Architectual drawing of the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer

Image 2 of 4

Nobert Dickman, general manaer of Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd, welcomes employees and visitors as they break ground Wednesday for the new corporate headquarters located off N. Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram less

Nobert Dickman, general manaer of Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd, welcomes employees and visitors as they break ground Wednesday for the new corporate headquarters located off N. Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim ... more

Photo: Tim Fischer

Image 3 of 4

Preliminary drawing of part of the planned community incorporated in the developement of the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters to be built off N. Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram less

Preliminary drawing of part of the planned community incorporated in the developement of the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters to be built off N. Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland ... more

Photo: Tim Fischer

Image 4 of 4

Fasken employees and visitors look at the proposed community that has been planned around the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters being built off Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram less

Fasken employees and visitors look at the proposed community that has been planned around the new Fasken Oil and Ranch corporate headquarters being built off Holiday Hill Road. Photo by Tim Fischer/Midland ... more

Photo: Tim Fischer

Fasken Oil breaks ground on new corporate headquarters

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

After 18 months of planning, executives of Fasken Oil and Ranch Ltd. were joined Wednesday by city officials to launch construction of its new corporate headquarters.

The groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of construction on Fasken's new 60,000 square-foot corporate headquarters to be built on the C Ranch at Holiday Hill Road and Sherwood Drive.

Norbert Dickman, Fasken's general manager, told the gathering that the company has grown to occupy four floors of the Bank of America building in downtown Midland and is quickly running out of space for its 150 employees. Knowing the company needed new quarters, he said "we struggled with the decision of whether or not to build downtown or out here," just west of Green Tree Country Club. Ultimately it was decided to build on land within the company's C Ranch. "We think building here is in the best interest of Fasken and of Midland."

Construction of the new office building, Midland's first major office project since the 1980s, also marks Phase I of Fasken's master planned community, the Vineyard. Built around the office building, the Vineyard is designed to include residential and multi-family development, office and retail space, parks, trails, resident amenities and even an elementary school.

Dickman said the company has drilled and operates producing oil wells on the property and plans to develop the land surrounding the wells, which are on 40-acre spacing.

"In a sense, Midland is landlocked by oil and gas development along the outskirts," he said. "If Midland is going to grow, it will have to expand in conjunction with oil and gas development. This won't be just an office building but a development where we see the two industries can grow together."

Owning both surface and mineral rights on the land, Fasken will draw not only on its oil and gas development expertise but its real estate development expertise, he said. The company has built warehouses, subdivisions and apartments on its holdings in Laredo, with plans to do more. Encouraged by its success in Laredo, he said the company acquired land in San Antonio and has built apartments and subdivisions.

State Rep. Tom Craddick told the gathering that Fasken's plans are "a sign of growth and jobs here and in Texas. Oil and gas development and real estate development living together will be important here and elsewhere in the state. With the rise of drilling in new areas like the Barnett Shale and Eagle Ford in South Texas, there are more state representatives now interested in learning about the oil and gas industry."

City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Michael Trost said "to marry oil and gas and real estate is truly a big step. I'm sure the rest of the state will look to Midland and what Fasken is doing here."

City Councilman Jeff Sparks told the audience he grew up hearing about the Fasken family and said the plans for the office building and planned community are symbolic of oil and gas operators.

"Oil and gas people are, by nature, dreamers and this is a dream, having residences and producing wells mixed together," he said. "Oil and gas people are off their rockers, too, because they spend an awful lot of money to drill a hole in the ground hoping to find oil to pull out of the ground. They pull that oil out of the ground and stick it in a tank battery and then, in the middle of the night some trucker comes along and takes that oil away. Oil and gas people are very trusting, too, because no one's out there when that trucker comes, they don't know when that oil is sold or what the price was; they're told a month later what the price was. It doesn't surprise me that the Faskens are pioneering a new development that will show how oil and gas and real estate development can work together."

The new office building, designed by RVK Architects of San Antonio, will be a two-story building with two wings and will evoke the company's ranching history. That history began in 1913 when an attorney from Toronto acquired the 222,600-acre C Ranch from the estate of Nelson Morris, a Chicago meat packing operator who had bought the acreage -- covering land in Andrews, Ector, Martin and Midland counties -- from the Texas Land Office in 1883. The Fasken family retains the acreage, minus 57,600 acres sold to J.E. Mabee in the early 1930s.